N.J. diocese bankruptcy filing creates uncertainty | Editorial

The diocese may not be hiding anything, but its statement works hard to emphasize that the reorganization would have no effect on: the 62 individual parishes in seven South Jersey counties; any diocese-associated Catholic schools in the region; any direct employees of the diocese, their salaries and their pensions; or the donations to, or work done by, the House of Charity-Bishop’s Annual Appeal, Catholic Strong or Catholic Charities.

As for what victims of what Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan refers to as “long-ago claims of (clergy) abuse,” that might be another matter. The bishop’s statement says the diocese had to pay $8 million in settlements just this year through the New Jersey Independent Victims Compensation Program, and that it had to borrow the money. There’s none left: “The Diocese does not have the resources to equitably and proportionally address further claims at this time.” Some 50 lawsuits are still awaiting resolution, the bishop states.

Sullivan said the combination of the disbursements and revenue dips from the COVID-19 suspension of in-person masses combined to make Chapter 11 “the best course of action.”

Since diocesan finances are almost as impenetrable as those of the president, it’ll be up to U.S. District Bankruptcy Court experts to unravel which assets and expenditures are within the filing’s scope, and which are not. Plaintiffs' attorneys in the sexual abuse cases likely think this is a stop-the-clock move designed to halt or delay or withhold payments to their clients.